


Devil's Confidant

by fullfrankfull21



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Action/Adventure, Marriage, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-12-31 16:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12136491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullfrankfull21/pseuds/fullfrankfull21
Summary: 10 years after the events of Persona 5 incidents start to arise again, however, this time they're not mental shutdowns or murders. People all across Japan have started disappearing without a trace to be found. Whether it be the CEO of company or an average hobo, no one is safe. When Tamotsu Aiko and his friends find a strange app on their phone, they're transported to a world they don't recognize. Hunted by a man they've never met. It's only with the help of a mysterious duo that they manage to survive.





	1. Chapter 1: The Man in White

**Chapter 1: The Man in White**

 

The shadow fell to it's knees, a gaping hole pulsing through the side of it's gut. Black ooze slowly dripped from the hole as a figure in white stood over it. **_“P-please… stop… just stop…”_** the shadow pleaded, trying to grip onto its still ‘bleeding’ hole. As it raised its head the shadow once again lifted its head to look at the figure in white. A tall, lean and blinding figure in pure white clothing, the figures face covered with an armored visor with black lenses covering the eyes. Their hands were covered in white gloves, a one-piece suit wrapped around their chest and white pants with the only thing differentiating from the outfit being the black boots on their feet.

 

**_“Why… why are you doing this?”_** the shadow groaned, still clutching his wound.

 

The white figure said no words, instead they raised their left arm once more and in it was a gun. They pointed the gun at the shadows arm, its barrel long and black with a white wooden handle. And with a quiet click that echoed through the empty streets, the gun fired. The shadow could feel the moment the bullet connected with its arm, before it could even realize it the shadow’s arm went flying off, once again black ooze dripped onto the ground with the only thing being heard was the cries of agony coming from the shadow.

 

“You already know why. Now talk.” the white figure finally responded, reloading and pointing their gun towards the shadows leg now.

**_“I can’t…”_** the shadow grunted through his pain, **_“… you don’t know what they’ll do to me if I do.”_**

 

The shadow closed its eyes in fear, expecting for them to shoot again. Instead, there was nothing. No gunshot, no pain. It opened its eyes once more to see the white figure looking away, almost as in thought although it was hard to recognize due to the mask they were wearing. The shadow saw its chance, it was probably the only chance it was going to get, and it took it.

 

It sprinted away from the figure, it’s elongated, beast-like legs using every muscle fiber of its being to gain as much ground as it could before the figure could even notice that they escaped. Step after step after step the shadow sprinted, but when it came to the next, the shadow tumbled, a massive pain overcoming its lower body. The shadow looked down to see what happened and that’s when it saw even more black ooze. One of its legs had been shot off but only now had the pain caught up to it. Despite that however the shadow still struggled to try and escape as it crawled alongside the floor. All the while the white figure slowly walked towards the shadow before once again they were in front of it.

 

**_“Just kill me already. Whatever death holds would be better than what would happen to me in his hands.”_** the shadow pleaded, finally giving up his escape attempt.

“Is that you final choice?” they once more pointed the gun towards the shadow, this time to its head. In response the shadow merely nodded, closing its eyes once more and accepting its fate.

 

The white figure seemed to stop for a moment, pulling their finger away from the trigger. “Well… it would seem you creatures do possess some amount of loyalty, or rather, you have a fear of death. Thank you, you’ve proven to be an adequate test subject.” they said before putting their finger back on the trigger. “Perhaps this way you will finally find peace with yourself in the sea of souls you creatures blabber on so much about.”

 

And at that moment a voice came seemingly out of nowhere, catching the white figures attention. That voice said only a single word.

 

“STOP!”

 

**4/14, Evening, Tokyo alleys**

 

Tamotsu felt his back ache as he made contact with the wall. He was dizzy, the back of his head colliding with the wall at the same tame as his back. “Heh, looks like you really were just all talk kid.” a voice rang through his ears though he couldn’t recognize who was saying it. As he fell to his knees Tamotsu tried to get back up, struggling against the nausea. He raised his head and through the blurry vision all he could see were three men in street wear standing over him. He couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying, but Tamotsu knew they were only continuing to taunt him.

 

“I warned you.” one of the men said as he grabbed Tamotsu’s hair and pulled his head up to the same level as him, “All of this coulda been avoided if you just gave us the money.”

“Don’t lie Doro, you wanted to beat the shit outta this kid’s smug ass the moment you laid eyes on him.” another, much lankier and less intimidating man, said from the side.

“Yeah I guess you’re right. The fact he was so confident he could take us only makes all of this so much sweeter.” the man called Doro said with a gleeful grin.

“What do you think Suji? What should we do with him?” the lanky man turned his head to a much larger and wider thug who was leaning on a wall in silence.

“Mmm…” Suji murmured, not saying a word and continuing to lean on the wall opposite to the one Tamotsu collided with.

 

Tamotsu felt a pull on his hair; the one called Doro once again had Tamotsu get on eye level with him. “Any last words before we permanently break your legs twerp.” Tamotsu could hear the snickering of the lanky one behind Doro and while he still couldn’t see all too clearly he knew that Doro had a grin going from ear to ear. Frankly, it was pissing him off.

 

“Yeah I got a few words…” Tamotsu started and in a blink of an eye he thrust his head into Doro’s face, on impact he could not only hear but he could also practically feel Doro’s nose break on impact.

 

Not wasting time Tamotsu wrapped his arms around the lower part of Doro’s chest, turned him around and used his head to push him into the wall he was pushed to just a few seconds ago. As Doro connected with the wall Tamotsu could hear his two accomplices getting caught off guard at how fast the situation shifted. “The hell?!” the lanky one panicked, staying still, not knowing what to do. All the while Tamotsu didn’t waste any time to continue and pound on Doro’s face with his fists.

 

“Suji for god’s sake do something already!!!!” the lanky one called out to his bulkier cohort who responded with a charge.

 

As Suji charged towards Tamotsu his vision was still blurry and his head still spinning. At the last second he managed to dodge, though somewhat lazily. Slowly but surely he was beginning to regain his senses. Not wasting the chance of catching his opponent off balance Tamotsu reeved up a punch however Suji seemed to be more nimble than his appearance would make one think. The thug quickly turned around and once again charged towards Tamotsu, this time instead of dodging however he first strafed to the left before sidelining him. The sheer force of impact when Tamotsu’s arm connected with Suji’s neck made him think it was going to tear off. With the sideline Suji fell to the ground on his back. He tried to catch his breath and focus but to Tamotsu’s continued annoyance the lanky one jumped on his back, wrapping his skinny little arms around his head in what Tamotsu could only think was an attempt to strangle him.

 

Thankfully he was barely any sort of threat compared to the other two as Tamotsu quickly turned to the wall once more and charged backwards, slamming the skinny prick and making him lose his grip. It only took another slam on the wall for the thug to fall off of Tamotsu.

 

All three of the thugs were on the floor, two of them were unconcious with the only left now being Doro, the leader of the little group. Just like Doro did, Tamotsu grabbed the thugs hair and pulled his head up to eye level. Tamotsu didn’t even need to look at his eyes to see how terrified the thug was. As he stared the now silent Doro down Tamotsu gestured his hand to hand something over, “I believe you have something of mine.” he said in low tone.

 

Doro didn’t need any more incentive. With shaking hands he pulled out a black leather wallet from the pocket of his jacket. “H-h-h-here… just… just please don’t hurt us any more…” Doro said, his voice quivering, a sharp contrast to a minute ago.

 

“Word of advice; Careful who you pick your fights with.” with those words Tamotsu left the beaten up thugs in the alleyway. As he made his way out Tamotsu counted the money inside the wallet to see if it was all still there and thankfully everything added up.

 

It didn’t take long for Tamotsu to get out of the dirty alleyways of Tokyo and back into Shibuya center, where the distant mumblings from the alleys became much clearer as Tamotsu molded with the crowd. Despite him having a black eye and bleeding from the lip nobody even bothered to look. It was one of the upsides with living in Shibuya; everyone’s too busy with their own business to worry about others. He cleaned the blood from his lip and continued on home, tomorrow was the first day of school. _‘Those bastards just had to jump me a day before school starts.’_ Tamotsu thought to himself as he lightly tapped the black spot around his left eye.

 

After some time walking through Shibuya Tamotsu finally walked to one of the side streets that led home. His house was nothing special, just a simple two story apartment, the second story being the attic. Inside was a living room with a couch, two chairs and a TV with a small coffee table in the middle, a kitchen connected to said living room and two bedrooms, one for Tamotsu and one for his dad.

 

Tamotsu entered his house and saw his father Masahiro lounging on the couch reading a newspaper. He was a simple looking man; he had short dark brown hair as well as brown eyes matching his hair even though they were a much lighter shade. The moment he entered the living room Tamotsu’s father saw him and his brow immediately shot up.

 

“Tamotsu what happened?!” his father jumped up from the couch as he dropped the newspaper.

“I got jumped by a few assholes in an alley.” Tamotsu said in an annoyed tone.

“No, not that. How’d you get a black eye?” Masahiro said as he pointed to the black eye.

“I told you, they got the jump on me and one of them managed to land a hit.” Tamotsu explained.

“Well at least there’s no serious damage.” Masahiro said, further inspecting the eye.

 

Tamotsu’s father then turned away and got back on the couch, continuing to read his newspaper. “I made some curry; it’s in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

“No thanks, I already ate. I’m just gonna go take a shower and go to bed.” Tamotsu said, heading towards his bedrooms bathroom.

 

“Alright then, good night.”

 

**4/15, Early Morning, Tokyo**

“Looks like its going to rain today.” Tamotsu murmured to himself as he stood in front of his house looking up at the clouds slowly turning grey. He quickly turned his head back towards the open front door of his house, “Hey dad you think I’m gonna need an umbrella?” he shouted to his father who was busy getting dressed for work in his bedroom.

 

“Is it cloudy?!”

“Yeah”

“Then yes!”

 

“Alright then, I’ll see you after school!” he said goodbye to his father, grabbed both his school bag and an umbrella, and left for his first day of a new school year.

 

The streets of Tokyo were as busy as ever. Businessmen walking to their jobs, other students going to their respective schools and people who were going to get themselves a cup of coffee to wake themselves up, all having the same tired expressions of the morning. Whenever Tamotsu saw all these people it made him glad he lived so close to school. Waking up at 6:30 A.M. every time in the morning to get on an overcrowded train and wait two hours to get to your destination. It was one of the few upsides of living in more crowded areas.

 

It didn’t take long for Tamotsu to pass Shibuya and enter the street leading to his school. The crowds he was passing through slowly became less dense as now most of the people going his way were fellow students wearing the same black school uniforms with red stripped pants as Tamotsu. This was going to be his third year at Shujin Academy; it was a weird feeling for Tamotsu knowing that now most of the students attending school with him are going to be a year or two younger than him. He still remembers when he first started high school, the nervousness and excitement of going to a new school, Tamotsu was seeing the same face he was making back then on many of the new first years walking past him trying not to be late on the first day of school.

 

“Tamotsu!” he heard a voice calling out to him from behind. As he turned around Tamotsu saw a lanky boy with black hair and eyes. Under the boy’s uniform was a grey hoodie.

“Well I’ll be damned you actually made it on time Kazuo.” Tamotsu greeted his friend who quickly caught up to him.

“Eh, it’s the first day of school. Might as well try and seem like I’m getting better at this whole ‘arriving on time’ thing.” Kazuo said nonchalantly as the two continued their walk to school.

“Eleven years Kazuo. You’ve had eleven years and yet you still haven’t mastered it.” Tamotsu said.

“Well at least I’m breaking up traditions a bit, you’re still coming to school looking like you were just part of a street fight.” Kazuo said

 

The two continued on their way walking the rest of the distance to school. It only took a few minutes before they were in front of Shujin Academy, the building looming over them like a tower. All the while students continued to pour into the school, climbing up the stairs with the chatter filling the insides of the school. In front of the schools entrance was Mr. Omio, their schools history teacher. An older man in his forties with black, slightly greying hair and soft, friendly eyes. The man was Tamotsu and Kazuo’s homeroom teacher in their first year. From their personal experiences Mr. Omio was a kind and humorous old man, often finding ways to light up his class with a good joke or interesting presentation. Both of them had a slight respect for the old man due to him openly trying to reach out to his students and help them whenever they had bad grades.

 

Mr. Omio seemed to be there to greet all the first years and direct them towards their homerooms as he was holding some sort of schedule. Besides the first years he seemed to have been welcoming back a lot of second and third years as well.

 

“Hello Omio-sensei.” Tamotsu greeted his history teacher.

“Hello there Aoki-kun.” The history teacher said in his usual calm and laid back tone before noticing the black eye. “Let me guess, you fell down some stairs again?”

“Something like that, yeah.” he responded back, scratching the back of his head.

“Good to see you teach.” Kazuo said with a much less formal tone.

“Ah Kazuo-kun, glad to see you finally coming on time.” the teacher spoke jokingly.

“Well I’m a senpai now, gotta set an example for the first years don’t I?” he joked.

 

“Heh, well I’m sure you two boys are going to be the stars of this school year.” Mr. Omio said, letting out a slight chuckle. “Now get on to your homerooms, class is starting soon.” Mr. Omio said as he also went inside the school, disappearing into the upper floors.

 

As the teacher went inside so did the two high school students. It was going to take some getting used to now that both of them had homerooms on the first floor. “Oh right, I wanted to give you this before I forgot.” Kazuo reached into his bag and pulled out a small sports car figurine. Tamotsu looked at the figurine with a curious expression, confused at the gesture. “Consider it a late birthday gift.” Kazuo said as he handed over to him.

 

That’s when Tamotsu was reminded. His birthday was on spring break and this year Kazuo and his family went on vacation to Europe so the two didn’t see each other the entire break.

 

“Wow, this looks like an antique or something.” Tamotsu commented.

“Yeah well I know you like cars and I needed something to bring back for you while I was in Europe.”

“Kaz I appreciate the gesture and all but you really didn’t ha-“before Tamotsu could finish Kazuo raised his hand to stop him.

“Save it. I hate whenever you try and be humble. Besides, I spent a lot of cash on this.” Kazuo said, lowering his hand.

“Alright then, thanks Kaz, I mean it.” Tamotsu said and while his face didn’t really convey it, he was happy his friend remembered.

 

They always were an odd duo. Tamotsu wasn’t someone who expressed himself or his emotions very often, or rather, he didn’t really know how to express himself. He walked stiffly, his face always having an almost constantly bored expression, everything about his body language made him give out an air of aggression. The fact he was constantly getting into fights outside of school also didn’t really help his reputation. Kazuo was the exact opposite, he always had a smile on his face and he was friendly, open, welcoming to others around him. Some would say he was the schools popular boy as all of the undergrads, and even some third years, looked up to him as a role model, despite his less than desirable history of coming late and even skipping out on some classes.

 

“Don’t sweat it.” As he said that the two parted ways.

“See you after school?” Tamotsu asked.

“You betcha. Oh and if you see Masami and Mari tell them I said hi.” Kazuo said before leaving for his homeroom and the two parted ways.

 

Tamotsu walked around the school hall a bit looking at all the class signs to see where his own was. 3-A, 3-B, 3-C, 3-D and finally, 3-E, Tamotsu’s assigned homeroom. He slid the door open to see three rows of seats, some empty, some already taken by his classmates. Most of the faces Tamotsu was seeing weren’t very recognizable, except for two. A little bit away from the door he saw two girls, both with distinctly similar feature. They both had shoulder length brown hair with one having lighter brown and the other a much darker shade of brown. The light brown haired girl was sitting down and talking to the darker haired girl who was standing. Just like with their hair the two had matching blue eyes. It didn’t take long for the two to notice Tamotsu as well.

 

“Speak of the devil, we were just talking about you.” the darker haired girl called out, gesturing for him to come over.

Tamotsu walked to the girls, “So I guess we’re in the same class again.” he said drily.

“Oh don’t pretend you’re disappointed, we know you love hanging out with us.” the darker haired said, lightly punching his shoulder. “Besides, looks like you were having fun without us just fine.”

“Spare me the mocking Mari. Three assholes jumped me in an alley, got a few lucky hits in.” Tamotsu said while leaning on the table in front of the one the light brown haired girl was sitting on.

“Wow, someone actually managed to catch you by surprise?” Mari asked, crossing her arms with a smirk.

“Well I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt Tamotsu-kun.” The lighter haired girl said with a warm smile.

“Thanks Masami.” Tamotsu said back as he took a free seat that was in front of the two girls. “Oh, by the way, Kaz says hi.”

“Wait, he actually came to school for the first day?” Mari asked in a genuinely surprised tone.

“Yeah, go figure.” Tamotsu said non-chalantly as he pulled out his phone to check the time.

 

It was currently 8:29, class was about to start in a minute. As he looked a bit down from the clock of his phone he saw something unusual however. A small little icon resembling the shape of a red and white eye. ‘That’s strange; I don’t remember ever installing something like this.’ Tamotsu thought. Not really bothering to think about it anymore he dragged the little icon to his trash bin and deleted it. Tamotsu put his phone back in his pocket and turned back to Masami and Mari.

 

Tamotsu knew Masami and Mari since his first year mainly because, like Kazuo, the three of them went to the same homeroom and became friends. The twins were, depending on who you ask, an endearing duo of girls. Masami was a sweet and soft spoken girl, often greeting people with a friendly smile and warm look. Her sister Mari was the more ‘strong willed’ of the two, unlike Masami she was much more confident in her interactions with others but never really steered too far from her twin as she was most comfortable with her.

 

“Me and Kaz are going to the arcade after school, you two want to come?” he asked the two girls.

 

“Yeah, sure, I got nothing better to do.” Mari said as she sat down on the seat next to Mari.

“I’m free too so I guess we can all go.” Masami joined in while getting her books out of her bag.

“Great, so it’s decided.” Tamotsu said as the two girls nodded back.

 

And with that the bell rang and school finally began.

 

**4/15, After School, Tokyo**

“Gaaaaaaaaaah, that was tiring.” Mari yawned out as she stretched out her arms in the air.

“We didn’t even do anything” Tamotsu commented.

“Yeah but listening to all those old farts just ramble on and on just exhausts you.” she said, putting her hands in the pocket of her uniform.

“Funny, with how much you keep yapping I’m surprised you’re not tired more often.” Kazuo said in a joking tone.

“Come on now Kazuo-kun, be nice.” Masami said.

 

The three were walking down a street leading down to Shibuya’s train station. While his three friends were talking Tamotsu pulled out his phone again to see what the time is. That was when he noticed it again, that small red eye. He stopped in his tracks as Tamotsu raised his brow in suspicion. “What the…” Tamotsu murmured under his breath.

 

“Hmm, what’s wrong?” Kazuo asked, hearing Tamotsu.

“Yeah what’s the holdup man?” Mari said in an annoyed tone.

 

Masami walked up to Tamotsu and peered over to look at his phone. “Oh, so you have that too.” she said, also noticing the red eye icon on Tamotsu’s phone. “Mari, remember when I showed you that strange app on my phone on our way to school?” Masami asked her sister.

 

“Oh yeah, I have that thing too.” Mari now also had her phone pulled out.

 

“Wait a second.” Kazuo said, “Red and white eye with like a flame or star thing going on right?” he asked the three to which they all nodded in agreement. “I have it on my phone too.”

“You think it’s some kind of virus or something?” Mari said while staring at her phone with suspicion.

“I don’t know, but we probably shouldn’t touch it. It’s best to just delete it.” Masami said, now pulling out her own phone.

“I already tried that.” Tamotsu said, repeatedly pulling the strange app into the trash bin but every time it just kept coming back. “I’m gonna see what this thing does.”

“You sure that’s the smartest thing to do?” Kazuo said, the caution in his tone being very obvious.

“What’s the worst that can happen; it’s just a phone app.” Tamotsu said to Kaz.

“Famous last words.” Mari said under her breath, crossing her arms.

 

Everyone huddled around Tamotsu, peering over to his phone to see what was going to happen. It was a little annoying to say the least. Not wanting to waste any more time, Tamotsu tapped on the small red eye icon. Suddenly a sound came from his phone, or rather, a voice. **_“Beginning Metaverse Transportation”_** a robotic voice rang through the phone. All four of them stared in pure confusion.

 

Suddenly the world around him started to shift and contort. “What the-“ Tamotsu shouted out as the sky turned red, the distant buildings of Tokyo slowly disappeared and black dust started to slowly glide around him. He looked around trying to see what was happening, it was then when he noticed that Kazuo, Masami and Mari were nowhere to be found, he was alone.

 

That was when a ringing sound echoed through the now empty streets, Tamotsu knew that sound all too well, it was a gunshot. He turned his head to where the sound came from and that was when he saw it. A horrific creature, nothing about it was normal; it wasn’t an animal, nothing even closely resembling one. It had long, dog-like legs that were connected to a skeletal torso, though really it was more a ribcage with loose, hanging bits of flesh. It’s had three arms; two were skeletal, like its torso while the third was on its spine, the only one with any actual meat. And above it was someone else, someone with a more human like shape.

 

A man in white.

 

**END OF CHAPTER 1**


	2. Chapter 2: The Devil Arcana

**Chapter 2: The Other World**

 

_'Dammit dammit dammit'_ his body couldn't move, his legs frozen in place, his arms not budging an inch. _‘MOVE!’_ Tamotsu screamed at himself, watching the sight in front of him unfold. He didn’t know who the man in white was, why he was here or… what in hell that _thing_ was. From the distance he could see it was in great pain as even its wails of pain reached all the way to Tamotsu’s ear.

 

Whatever it was didn’t matter now, from just the looks of it every alarm in Tamotsu’s head starting ringing danger, although the same could be said for the other one. He wanted to move and yet still nothing. It was as if something was holding him back, or rather, holding him in place.

 

And then, another shot. It rang across the empty, dust-clouded streets, making Tamotsu have to cover his ears to not go deaf. The arm of the beast flew off into the air before disappearing in a cloud of black smoke. The entire sight made Tamotsu… enraged, he looked at how pathetic the beast was, how much power that normal man had over him, all of it was making his blood boil. His fists clenched, his teeth gritting, Tamotsu finally made a step.

 

“Move…” he said under his breath, “Move…” his body refused to listen, but then he realized that the person he was trying to reach wasn’t himself, it was that monster.

 

He only saw a faint hint of it, but the man in white heard Tamotsu as his head was turning towards him. It was then that he felt a pull on his arm, someone pulling him to the side into a backstreet. “Come on, move will you!” the voice pulling him said in a rushed yet whispered tone. As he was dragged into the alleyway Tamotsu saw that Kazuo was the one pulling him, with Masami and Mari staying low along the wall behind him.

 

“Wait, how did you-… where did you three come from?” Tamotsu asked in a hushed voice, immediately calming down after seeing his friend’s faces.

 

“When you touched that app thing you just disappeared, no trace, nothing.” Mari explained, making an effort to be as quiet as possible. “We thought you were gone, but Kazuo said we should also touch it, see what it does, and see if it leads us to you. And… well… that’s how we all wound up here.”

 

“It was a gamble but hey, what’s the worst that can happen right?” Kazuo said, still being able to smile.

“At least you still have your sense of humor.” Tamotsu said, fully aware he was the reason all of them were here.

 

“When we got here we tried to call you but you weren’t listening.” Masami said, her voice obviously showing her fear. “We should get out of here, right now.” her hands were obviously shaking despite how much she was trying to hide it.

 

“She’s right.” Tamotsu pulled out his phone, “If we got into this place with the app. Then we should be able to get out of here right?” the red eye was still there, only this time it was blinking. All of them nodded and pulled out their phones as well. “All we have to do is tap it and we’ll get back to the real world… at least I hope we will.”

 

“All of this, what even is this place?” Mari said, looking around her.

“I don’t know but that’s not important right now.” Tamotsu pulled the girl’s attention back to her phone.

“The sooner we get out of here the better.” Masami said in a shaky voice.

 

The first one to tap the icon on their phone was Kazuo, this time there wasn’t any voice coming out of the phone only a little ring. In the blink of an eye Kazuo quickly blinked away from reality, or the reality they were in right now. _‘So it does work’_ Tamotsu thought to himself.

 

“Alright, you two next.” he turned to the twins to which they quickly nodded and at the same time, tapped the icon.

 

Two little dings came from their phones. When Masami heard the ding Tamotsu saw her face light up a bit from relief, she was obviously happy to get back to the real world. As the two faded out of Tamotsu’s sight he himself was getting ready to tap the icon before another shot rang out. Once again he gripped his ears, wincing in pain to the sudden blast. The cries of pain coming from the beast once again cut into Tamotsu; he didn’t know why it bothered him so much. That thing wasn’t him, it wasn’t him nor is it anything even remotely close to him. Then why? Why is this so disturbing to him?

 

He put the phone in his pocket and leaned out the corner, careful to not be noticed. The beast was lying on the ground, a hole in its gut, missing both an arm and leg, black ooze dripping from its wounds and expanding slowly across the ground. The situation hadn’t changed at all; the beast was still on the ground, groveling in pain, to Tamotsu’s eyes it was a pathetic sight. Over it the man in white still stood over the monster. In his left hand he gripped a strange gun; from the distance Tamotsu could only notice its strangely long barrel and the white handle.

 

While he looked on the two figures seemed to be having some sort of conversation, or rather, an interrogation. The beast had put its head down while the man in white pointed the gun to said head… before putting the gun down. Tamotsu looked in confusion as he saw the situation unfold. _‘Did he-… did he get all he needed from him?’_ Tamotsu thought, his brow rose, for some reason hoping that the thing was going to be spared. It was like seeing a dog getting forcefully put down, the sheer powerlessness of it.

 

But then the gun rose once more, pointed towards the skull of the beast. The man in white put his finger on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment. Tamotsu’s hands gripped the corner of the wall he had been holding onto. Every bone in his body was telling him to stay put, get out of there while he still could; but this time he wasn’t listening. It didn’t matter what happened to him, to leave that thing now would be something Tamotsu couldn’t life with. It didn’t matter why. Not anymore.

 

He jumped from the alley and ran towards the two figures. In the span of three seconds he was already much closer to them.

 

“STOP!”

 

With his shout both the monster and the man in white turned towards him. The monsters eyes were fully open, golden pupils with wolf like irises staring directly at Tamotsu. It was then when he also noticed the man in whites mask. A strange visor with black lenses; everything about it was metallic and provided a stark contrast to the slick and professional look the rest of the man’s clothes gave off.

 

“Now isn’t this an unexpected circumstance.” The man in white said as he pulled the trigger, releasing a fiery explosion from his gun as well as a bullet that quickly pierced through the monsters skull. Tamotsu recoiled, taking a step back from the man. As the body of the beast lied limp and lifeless what was left of it slowly disappeared into black fog. “I hadn’t expected to see more people here of all places. And from the looks of you…” the man eyed Tamotsu, “… from your uniform I assume you are from Shujin Academy. Is that correct?”

 

The question made Tamotsu even more paranoid. _‘If this guy knows I’m from Shujin-… no he was asking a question, maybe he’s not sure. Whatever he does I can’t let him know I’m Shujin, I can’t let him connect Kaz, Mari or Masami to me.’_ He thought, carefully watching the suited man’s next move to see if he was going to try anything.

 

The man had raven black hair that was slicked back and a full beard covering the lower part of his face. His clothes were already apparent, all white with black boots, even the man’s skin seemed to fit in as it was almost unnaturally pale. Tamotsu had also gotten a chance to have a better look at his gun. He wasn’t quite sure but it looked like an old Thompson one-shot pistol that had been custom-made, what with the whole decorated handle and elongated barrel.

 

“No I’m not from Shujin.” Tamotsu said, carefully observing what he could of the man’s expression though surprisingly, it didn’t change a bit.

“Oh? My apologies I had thought I memorized all the school uniforms in Tokyo. What school are you then, if you do not mind me asking?”

“You really think I’m going to answer a guy like you a question like that?”

“I suppose not.” the man said, his voice completely still and constant with not a hint of emotion in them. “Well in the end it doesn’t matter.”

 

Tamotsu once again recoiled as the man in white raised his arm and pointed his gun at him. “If you are here then that means you are of use to her. And I cannot allow her to gain another pawn against me.” The main said, his voice remaining emotionless while Tamotsu was freaking out on the inside.

 

_‘The hell is this guy saying?! Who is “she”?! Why the fuck am I having a gun pointed at me right now?!’_ all of those thoughts ran through his head. _‘No! Calm down! This isn’t a time to be panicking! He doesn’t look like he’s up for negotiation, but he’s not that far away, I’ve handled bigger hotshots than this guy… though something tells me he’s no pushover…’_ every possible situation had gone through Tamotsu’s mind in a matter of seconds. He saw the man grip the handle of his gun and pull it down. A chamber flew out, probably the shot he used to kill that shadow thing.

 

That was when he saw his chance. Throwing the school bag he was carrying to the ground Tamotsu charged at the man in white. By the time he had gotten to him the man had already reloaded the gun but luckily it was too late. He grabbed both of the man’s arms and pushed them up in the air. He had nothing to guard himself and Tamotsu used that fact to ram his head into his opponents. Adrenaline was flowing through his veins, so much so that the pain in his head right now became nothing. The strike was not as effective as Tamotsu would have liked but his opponent still stumbled from the impact.

 

Now that their guard was completely broken he cocked back his arm and pushed it forward with all the strength he could muster, hoping it would knock him out. Despite the initial attack however, the man recovered not even within a second as he effortlessly dodged around the punch. In an almost mechanical sequence of moves the man in white flipped the gun and hit Tamotsu’s head with incredible force. No matter how much he tried to keep on his feet Tamotsu could feel his head spinning and spinning. Eventually he fell to his knees.

 

_‘Fuck fuck fuck… dammit… this guy isn’t just some street thug.”_ Tamotsu could feel the blood dripping from his nose. _‘I’m not going to be able to take him out with just a few punches, I have to be relentless, don’t give him any chance to fight back again.’_ The man once again switched the hold of his gun to point and shoot at Tamotsu. _‘COME ON DAMMIT THERE’S NO TIME FOR ME TO BE STUMBLING ABOUT.’_ He screamed at himself before grabbing the man’s arms again due to the small distance between them.

 

The same thing didn’t work twice though as the man in white gut kicked Tamotsu. Even with the kick Tamotsu refused to let down, he continued to hold onto his arms, pushing the gun away still but the man continued kicking and eventually, Tamotsu lost his grip on the man’s left arm.

 

With one last powerful kick the man successfully pushed Tamotsu away, giving him ample time and space to let off a shot. Time once more slowed down and Tamotsu saw the expression on the man’s face. His head butt from earlier had cracked on of the lenses on his mask revealing an eye. The eye was a ghostly light shade of blue and yet even now, during the middle of a fight where he had proven to be more than a capable opponent, his face emoted nothing, no pain, no anger, and no panic. All Tamotsu saw was a lifeless, cold, calculating eye, aiming down sights for his heart. _‘I’m not done yet you bastard’_ he thought before regaining some footing and quickly strafing to the right.

 

That should have been enough to dodge the bullet completely; perhaps the worst that could happen was it grazing him, but no. As he moved the man in whites hand seemingly followed him, with a few milliseconds of delay perhaps. And then he fired. The bullet pierced through Tamotsu arm, through flesh and bone. The pain was unbearable, even with all the adrenaline, Tamotsu couldn’t hold back his cries of pain as he fell to his knees.

 

“Aaaagh… d-dammit all…” he scrunched his face up, gripping the wound as blood leaked out from his arm. “That all you got you s-… Aaaagh…” Tamotsu tried to get back on his feet before the man in white once again kicked him back down. “So what? You just going to kill me now, is that it?” he said through the grit of his teeth.

 

“This situation is somewhat ironic is it not?” the man said, reloading his gun while stomping down his foot on Tamotsu’s wound, crushing the hand holding it as well. “You ran in here to save an entity you knew nothing about, while trapped in a world you’ve never known even existed, and now you must die by the hands of a man whose face and name you shall never know. Weak, powerless, and alone. It is a rather tragic ending for you in my opinion.”

 

“D-don’t you fucking mock me.” Tamotsu said in a low, enraged voice, his teeth gritting down the pain. “If I’m going to die here at least I was able to dent that smug fucking face of yours.” to the boys words Tamotsu could see the man’s eye twitch a little, apparently just now noticing the scar on his cheek from the initial head butt Tamotsu gave him, some of the shards from the man’s lens cut into his face enough to leave a cut at least.

 

“Well, this is surprising.” The man said in an annoyingly neutral tone, touching the cut with two of his index fingers, the blood slowly staining his white gloves as they dripped down from his fingers. “Not only have you lasted against me a respectable amount you’ve also left an imprint on my face. Well done, this is a situation I could have only foreseen happening with Joker.” Tamotsu looked at the man with a confused look that interrupted his look of pain for a few moments. “Ah my apologies, those kinds of details certainly don’t concern you at a time like this. Nevertheless you were a far better test subject than the shadow from earlier.”

 

_‘God fucking dammit does he have to do that calm and collected act all the time?’_

 

The man in white let down his hands and looked through the iron sight of his pistol once more, this time instead of the heart he aimed for the head. _‘I’m fine with this’_ Tamotsu thought, _‘Kaz and the girls, they’re out, they’re safe, this bastards not getting to them. I’m… I’m fine with this… it’s alright… it’s alright… it’s alright…’_

Slowly closing his eyes, Tamotsu accepted his fate. “Is this your final choice? You would give up on your life after all that?”

“Just get it over with you bastard… I’ll see you in hell. Hopefully that’s going to be soon.” he replied, finally closing his eyes.

 

**_ “Is that truly your final answer?” _ **

**__ **

‘ _W-what-… who is-…’_

**_ “Are you content to die here as a pathetic weakling, no better than the one you tried to save?” _ **

**__ **

_‘It… it doesn’t matter what I think about it, no matter how much I fight this guy, I’m not going to be able to beat him.”_

**_ “AND YET YOU FOUGHT!” _ **

**__ **

_‘What are y-“_

**_ “You fought, knowing you couldn’t beat him, you showed not bravery, not courage, but mettle. You showed that you do not fear danger, that you do not fear death!” _ **

**__ **

As the voice in Tamotsu’s head said that chains appeared seemingly out of nowhere, his surroundings blacked out, leaving only him and the man in white inside the darkness. That darkness soon turned red and time once more froze though this time it seemed permanent. Despite the two being the only ones in the light Tamotsu saw another figure behind the white man, a terrifying cloaked figure with a bag over its head. The only thing letting him see it better was the red patch of pulsating flesh and a yellow iris that the flesh surrounded on the figures head; it was the only thing the bag revealed. The chains surrounded Tamotsu, wrapping around him and pulling him, crushing him, more and more. He struggled, he twitched, he moved all he could but the chains continued to crush him.

__

**_ “Do you feel it?” _ **

**__ **

The chains wrapped around him tighter. His head was pounding, his eyes felt like they were about to explode out of his skull, his mouth was on fire, everything hurt, it hurt so much, the pain was unbearable.

 

**_ “Do you feel their pain? Do you feel the pain of the weak? The pain they had to endure since the dawn of time itself?” _ **

**__ **

_‘It hurts… It hurts… It hurts…”_

**_ “This is pain, pain you have already felt so long ago. Many often say that the strong crush the weak. This is the power they say crushes them.” _ **

**__ **

_‘I…’_

**_ “But you do not believe that do you? You believe the strong exist to protect the weak. But you believe that weakness by itself is pathetic.” _ **

**__ **

_‘…’_

**_ “You do so much to try and strengthen yourself and yet you still accept the weakness of man! You bind yourself with the shackles that bound so many before you! The chains of the same society that hates you!” _ **

**__ **

_‘No’_

**_ “ARE YOU WILLING TO BREAK THE CHAINS THAT BIND YOU?! ARE YOU READY TO BECOME A MONSTER OF POWER UNIMAGINABLE THAT GUARDS THE WEAKLINGS BENEATH YOU?!” _ **

**__ **

Time continued, the darkness faded away revealing the crimson, dust-filled sky once more as a surge of blue flames pulsed through Tamotsu, eventually bursting out of him. The man in white jumped away to gain distance, his expression of neutrality finally breaking into one of bewilderment. As the flames faded back towards Tamotsu he had gone from laying on the floor to standing back on his feet, enwrapped in hellish looking chains. His face was one of agony, one of extreme pain, and yet he still stood on his feet, struggling against the chains.

 

**_ “BREAK FREE OF THE LIMITATIONS YOU’VE PLACED ON YOURSELF! BREAK FREE OF THE MORTALITY YOU SO DESPISE!” _ **

**__ **

“I AM SICK OF BEING WEAK! I AM SICK OF BEING USELESS!” he shouted out as the chains surrounding him began to crack and break. “I AM SICK OF SONS OF BITCHES LIKE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME! THINKING I’M EASY PREY! THAT I’M SOME SORT OF TORTURE TOY FOR YOU!” the chains around Tamotsu were finally fully broken as he spread his arms out. The broken remains of the chains stopped mid-fall and started to fly around him, eventually all flying towards his face as they melted on to him. The metal turned to liquid and then hardened around him forming a metallic mask.

 

**_ “YES! BREAK FREE! LET THIS PARASYTE FEEL WHAT TRUE STRENGTH IS!” _ **

**__ **

**_“Come forth, Hades!”_ **

**__ **

He placed his hands on the mask that was forged into his skin and with an agonizing pull; he ripped it off, skin and flesh coming off with it. With the mask gone the flames once again engulfed Tamotsu, searing his skin and bones, reforming, reshaping him. As the flames faded Tamotsu stood healed from his wounds, his gun wound and bruises, his seared flesh and burnt skin. From his school uniform came a dark blue trench coat, under it was something resembling plate armor with plate shoulder guards and boots that matched its worn and used look. Around his neck a similar dark blue scarf enveloped him.

 

From behind the blue flames still burned with a bright passion and from those flames came a colossal figure in molted armor. Its skin that of a dead man, as were its eyes. Behind the figure a mist-like cape flew where faces flew past. Around the breastplate were two chains with skulls attached that rattled and shook with each move the figure made. In its arms was a blade possessing a mystical glow.

 

**_ “I AM THE RULER OF THE UNDERWORLD; I AM HADES, YOUR OTHER SELF!” _ **

 

“Well now, this is quite the development.” The man in white said, his tone returning to its original neutrality. “I had not expected you to awaken so soon, usually it requires multiple travels into the Metaverse for one to experience what you currently are. Tell me, how does your newfound power feel?”

 

“Hmph…” Tamotsu sounded as he looked at his newfound uniform, “I can finally see why you’ve been acting so cocky this whole time.”

 

“Good, this power is a once in a lifetime opportunity for people like us. A persona is at the peak of its power after its first awakening, this is the strongest you both are ever going to feel. I suggest you cherish it.” The man in white explained, placing a finger on his broken mask, as if he was adjusting his glasses. “This could prove a most opportune time for an experiment. But before we commence, may I ask your name boy?”

 

“My name is Tamotsu Aiko, remember it.”

“Oh I most certainly will…”

“And what about you? What your name?”

“You may call me… Shiroi Okami, yes I believe that will do for now.”

 

**“Hades,”** Tamotsu called to what the man said was his ‘persona’, his irises turning a golden yellow **“you called him a parasite before. So what do you say we crush him like the bug he is?”**

**_“If the maggot wishes a battle then we shall gladly give it to him”_** Hades said as he twirled his sword and gripped it with both hands, putting himself into a battle stance.

 

“Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about you ‘Hades’. I wish to test the boy however in the current situation leaving you alone would be an incredible loss. You shall have your battle, but with me.” The man in white said, his expression that had just turned back to ‘normal’ broke as the man let off and devil-like smile that spanned almost ear to ear. From one finger to his full hand the man placed his hand on his mask as it burst into blue flames, just like the ones that had engulfed Tamotsu and were currently under Hades.

 

**“Reaper, come to me!”**

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:
> 
> ALRIGHT! Chapter 2 is done and whooooo boy was this a hard write for me. The main problem I have is that once again my writing is very basic and whenever I'm writing something like the awakening scene I get pretty stuck because I'm not really sure if I'm underdoing it or overdoing it. It's hard to explain really.
> 
> Also on the "Persona's are at their strongest right after their awakening" comment. This was basically my way of explaining the (let's face it, incredibly badass) awakening scenes where they show off what element the persona uses. It's supposed to be an incredibly epic moment of "oh ma gah look at how badass this dude/dudeete is" but in reality Joker could have easily pulled out a persona with the same powers and basically stole their thunder. So as an explanation for this I made it that they basically get a temporary power boost after awakening.
> 
> And once again I have to disclaim. I have not played any other Persona game other than Persona 5 so if there are any characters that have Hades as their personal persona then I apologize its pure coincidence.
> 
> G'night

**Author's Note:**

> Note:
> 
> Hello all and welcome to my first ever fic. Like the description would suggest this is a future fic with all of the events of Persona 5 happening 10 years earlier. Meaning we have a whole new crew, a whole new “Mementos” and a few new Palaces. Naturally the original Persona 5 characters will still be a part of the story but the main focus will be on these new ones.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: While I won’t generally be going in depth with Japanese life and culture there are still going to be segments of school life and general free time that doesn’t really involve stuff with the Metaverse. Because I don’t really know all that much about Japanese culture I apologize if some things seem out of place or are wrong, I might mess up some honorifics here or there, might mispronounce something etc. etc. ALSO please note that I have only played Persona 5, I have not played any of the other games in the franchise and thus do not know anything about said games, just pointing that out.
> 
> Like I said before this is my first ever story and I’m not ashamed to admit my writing is extremely basic and since English isn’t my first language typo’s and other errors are very likely to occur and for that I apologize. If anyone has any advice for me on how to write better or at least how I can smooth it all out a bit better it would be much appreciated.


End file.
